Originally Posted By sjhym333 I am also fascinated by the whole thing. Some of my work at Disney included movement of people in the parks and attractions so the whole thing is really interesting to me. In the long run there maybe no big changes in the theme park experience. It will really depend on who major decision come down from corporate. Constance, I am not sure when it will happen. It was supposed to have begun by now but it hasn't. My understanding is that Disney is processing the things they learned from the limited testing they did. There were several unexpected things they saw (though I can't get anyone to tell me what specifically) and they are making adjustments. I recently asked a friend about a timeline and they were really unsure and they are working on the project! I would expect that you will see it roll out in waves. First in terms of who can use it and then in terms of what is offered. Disney is smartly taking their time on this because they know the potential for failure and bad publicity is huge. I think one of the questions they are wrestling with is the one you raised which is how do you offer this and not tick lots of people off. For instance, if you open it to resort guests at first you can really tick off AP holders. If you offer it to Vacation Club members, you can tick off resort guests and so on. I think Disney is concerned about creating the look of a tiered rollout that leaves big groups of people behind, but on the other hand they are afraid of pulling the trigger on the whole thing at once. Should be fun to watch.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "But you are aware that you will probably need to do that 180 days before your trip." 180 days? That sounds ridiculously far in advance. Is it confirmed that it's really 180 days? A 60-30 day window would seem more realistic and practical.
Originally Posted By sjhym333 No not confirmed. I can't get an answer on that, though I can see a 30-60 day window. Of course the closer the window is to your actual trip, the more people will be in the pool to grab FP reservations.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "Well, it sounds like many things have yet to be decided..." Or they have been and the details haven't been released to the public. "... and no one really knows what the system will even be like." You mean that the fans on the Internet don't really know what the system will be like.
Originally Posted By sjhym333 Imagine what will happen when someone breaks the NextGen code and starts selling fake FP's.
Originally Posted By tashajilek ">>I find it hard to believe they will implement a plan that will make the experience miserable for very many people.<< Why's that? They've been running the FastPass sytem for 14 years now, and it makes plenty of people miserable. Obviously, it also has it benefits, but any system like this will have serious drawbacks for those who are unable to or don't use it to its full potential." Most normal human beings which arent us that go to a theme park think you get in line for a ride and that's it. It probably takes the average first timer a little while to understand how FP works. I can see people being upset not knowing you could have booked FP'S months in advance.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "They've been running the FastPass sytem for 14 years now, and it makes plenty of people miserable." Nothing is more miserable than standing in a traditional standby line for hours for a 5 minute ride. No matter what Disney does if it means that we have the option to limit these kind of waits it's an improvement.
Originally Posted By hopemax > 180 days? That sounds ridiculously far in advance. Is it confirmed that it's really 180 days? A 60-30 day window would seem more realistic and practical. < The diners would complain. "How can I book my dining when I don't know what day I can get a TSMM FP and will be at the Studios?"
Originally Posted By sjhym333 "Nothing is more miserable than standing in a traditional standby line for hours for a 5 minute ride. No matter what Disney does if it means that we have the option to limit these kind of waits it's an improvement." I always chuckle at statements like this. The reality is since FP has been in place, standby lines have gotten longer throughout the park. Look at Small World. I was a mgr in Fantasyland/Tomorrowland for years and on a normal non-holiday day we would see 5-10 min waits. Now the average wait is 30 mins. That is true for many attractions. Yes, if you came to WDW during Christmas and Easter you could stand in line for hours. But that was the exception, not the rule. FP by its very nature puts more people into the streets of the park and off a line. It is a simple mathmatical formula. Disney's hope was that you would eat and shop. Though when you make everything generic in those areas it hardly gives you reason to. Instead people are holding a FP for one attraction and in line at another attraction. Making standby lines longer. When Soarin made the transition from the old FP machines to the new ones, they were without FP for four days. Before the conversion the average wait time was 60 mins. During the conversion without FP the wait time dropped to an average 30 mins, sometimes hitting 45 mins but never hitting an hour. After the conversion it was back at an hour consistantly. Management was shown the figures and they agreed with the analysis. But we were told that there was no way that Soarin would be taken off the FP system.
Originally Posted By tashajilek Some rides just shouldnt have Fastpasses at all. TSMM at WDW is crazy and i will probably never experience it. I dont like waiting up to a hour at Disneyland for TSMM, but still better then waiting over 2 hrs at WDW.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "The diners would complain. "How can I book my dining when I don't know what day I can get a TSMM FP and will be at the Studios?"" OK, good point. "I always chuckle at statements like this. The reality is since FP has been in place, standby lines have gotten longer throughout the park." Blaming FP for increasing standby waits isn't quite fair or accurate. Doing so ignores the obvious reality that more, no, a lot more people visit the parks (at least in Anaheim) now than they did back when Fastpass was first launched in 1999. A simple Google search reveals that the year FP debuted DL reportedly had 13 million visitors. The most recent TEA report pegged DL Park at 16.1 million visitors in 2011. Personally I have a love/hate relationship with FP. I like the convenience of skipping lines, but having to trek across the resort to collect a reservation and then return is a pain. Still, I'd rather have it than not.
Originally Posted By tashajilek It's nice when it works in your favor. It sucks having all the good ones gone or at the end of the night. I am not a morning person and sometimes i dont want to have to be at the park at the crack of dawn. It would be interesting to see what the waits would be like if FP was removed for a short period of time.
Originally Posted By Indigo One of the things that different between FP+ and the current FP system is the number of opportunities you have to bypass the standby queue (or the long wait for a parade or show). More FP+ choices with the same number of people in the system should spread out the load and, effectively, shorten the standby queues across the park. (Alternatively, Disney could sell more tickets as it would dramatically increase capacity of the park, with more people stuck in standby queues, the park would feel emptier in the open spaces.) One of the big unknowns is how many FP+ you'll be able to get each day. If you're limited to 3 or 4 per day with no park hopping, then this will mean even fewer fastpasses are issued each day. The effect of that would again be shorter standby lines. Any guest who chooses a FP+ for a high capacity ride, parade, or show means one less guest in the queue for those attractions that really need FP (basically hot new attractions). Finally, if you're limited to one FP+ per attraction, that also has the potential to reduce standby load park wide. As Disney Operations undoubtedly saw, one small change to the system can cause a ripple effect with unforeseen impact on guest enjoyment and Rides Per Capita (the single measure by which Disney determines the success of a park).
Originally Posted By FerretAfros >>Alternatively, Disney could sell more tickets as it would dramatically increase capacity of the park, with more people stuck in standby queues, the park would feel emptier in the open spaces.)<< How would this work? With more FPs in circulation, there would be more guests out in the walkways of the parks, rather than waiting in line. This would make the parks feel more crowded; I'm not sure how they would be able to add significantly more people into the mix. The NextGen stuff does nothing to increase a park's overall attraction capacity, so I'm not sure how the end result will have a big difference on the park's daily capacity
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "It sucks having all the good ones gone or at the end of the night." Yep. You walk through a sea of people all the way to Splash Mountain only to find that it's sold out or the current return is at 10pm and the standby is 90 minutes. Something similar to this happened to me the last time I was there. I definitely would be interested in a system that allowed me to either see current waits and FP return times from anywhere on property via mobile device or reserve my ride time in advance.
Originally Posted By CuriousConstance Oh Splash Mountain is the worst fast pass to get! Plus there is nothing else to do to justify walking all the way over there.
Originally Posted By Yookeroo "When I was at DL last summer the wi-fi service was horrendous." That might be because DL doesn't have wi-fi.
Originally Posted By gurgitoy2 "Yes, yes hey are, but it isn't anything different from what Disney did when Eisner was building fast and furiously at WDW in the 80s and 90s. I guess what I'm trying to say is that eventually the physical expansion of Uni will mature, just like it has at WDW, and they will have rely on other ways to drive growth much in the same way that Disney is banking on timeshares, cruise ships, and MyMagic+ in Florida." Well, Universal Studios Hollywood is kind of in that spot now. They don't really have much room to expand, so things have to be demolished. Even with the Harry Potter expansion, they have to get rid of a lot of existing attractions and venues. They just have to work within that constraint and change out attractions every so often. As for FP, yeah, having a centralized FP distribution system, or having it available on mobile devices would be ideal. Maybe that will be part of MyMagic+? It is a pain in the butt to run all over the park to each attraction only to find very late return times, or no more FP left.
Originally Posted By tashajilek See for me the mobile app would be a disadvantage. I shouldn't have to have a iPhone and being from Canada I would have to pay extra to use it in the US. Not everyone has a data plan on their phone.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "When I was at DL last summer the wi-fi service was horrendous." >>That might be because DL doesn't have wi-fi.<< Well I guess that explains it.
